Technology giant Oracle reported second-quarter fiscal earnings Wednesday that slightly beat Wall Street’s expectations but said its profit slumped from the same period a year ago.

The corporation said its profit of $2.5 billion was down 2 percent from the second quarter last year, but its sales rose 3 percent to $9.6 billion. That worked out to earnings of 56 cents per share including all expenses, or 69 cents per share excluding some costs.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters generally had expected 56 cents per share on sales of $9.5 billion or 68 cents per share without some costs.

“Clearly we are very pleased with our results,” Oracle CEO Safra Catz said during a conference call with analysts, noting that demand for the Redwood City company’s Internet-based or so-called cloud services is booming. Sales of those services totaled $516 million, up 45 percent from a year ago.

The quarterly report was the first issued by Catz and her co-CEO, Mark Hurd, after longtime chief executive and driving force, Larry Ellison, relinquished that title in September. The 70-year-old Ellison, who had overseen Oracle for 37 years, remains active in the company as executive chairman and chief technology officer.

SOURCE: cio-today.com